Here’s a quick look at the principles that govern the DepEd Child Protection Policy (DepEd Order No. 40, s 2012).

Good news await parents, educators and our children. There is now a Department of Education policy to protect children from bullying. A Child Protection Committee (CPC) will be established in all private and public elementary and secondary schools. The committee will be composed of school officials, teachers, parents, students, and a community representative.

House Bill 5496, the Anti-Bullying Act of 2012 was approved on May requiring all elementary and secondary schools to adopt anti-bullying policies. The bill requires that “anti-bullying policies be included in the school’s student and employee handbook; details of the policies should be posted in school websites and school walls; schools shall submit their anti-bullying policies to the Department of Education (DepED) within six months upon effectivity of the law; bullying incidents in schools must be reported to the division superintendents, who in turn shall report to the Education Secretary; and the DepEd must submit a report on bullying incidents to the appropriate congressional committee and impose sanctions on school administrators who do not implement anti-bullying policies.”

The objective of the policy is to observe and promote zero tolerance on any act of child abuse, exploitation, violence, discrimination, bullying, and other forms of abuse in school,” said DepEd secretary Armin Luistro.

Parents are lucky these days. For so long, parents like me were helpless in communicating with the school officials.

It is the responsibility of the school to develop and maintain a safe and caring community by providing a comprehensive, school wide framework for the prevention of bullying or any form of discrimination or harassment. The school needs to ensure that students are given a consistent, coordinated, and strong message by everyone in the school that bullying will not be tolerated and that bullying can be prevented if all work together.

Noemi Lardizabal-Dado is a social media practitioner with over 10 years experience in blogging, citizen advocacy and online media publishing. Otherwise known as @MomBlogger on social media, she believes in making a difference in the lives of her children by advocating social change for social good.

She is a co-founder and a member of the editorial board of Blog Watch . She is a resource speaker on good governance, transparency, parenting, women’s rights and wellness, cyber safety, social media and digital citizenship . She also blogs at her personal blogs : aboutmyrecovery.com (parenting) , pinoyfoodblog.com (recipes), techiegadgets.com (gadgets) and beautyoverfifty.net (lifestyle).

Disclosure:

Organization affiliation includes Scrap Pork Network. Family friends with House Representative Pia Cayetano and Senator Alan P. Cayetano. I did not vote for any presidential candidate in the 2016 elections.

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Thank you for posting the Guidelines. It will be very helpful in the complaint I am drafting.

I have an 11yr old daughter who was a victim of a grave verbal abuse which was perpetrated no less than by the School Director himself.

After filing an Administrative case with the DepEd against the said director – I was disappointed to find out that DepEd can only act upon complaints against a person in the public school sector.

In this case, the person I have filed a complaint against is running a private school which made my complaint with the DepEd invalid and which was automatically dismissed after months of awaiting feedback.

In essence , the culprit has knowledge that he has somehow the protection from the guidelines of DepEd which makes his person immune from any liability since DepEd has no mandate to investigate him personally nor slap him with any charges arising from any wrong-doing for that matter even if he is found guilty.

I have learned that based under Deped Guidelines for Private Schools, I need to file my complaint against the school official with the school board who will in turn investigate the matter and come up with it’s own determination regarding guilt and corresponding sanctions if ever. In this case – I need to file a complaint against a person and submit it to the same person whom I expect to investigate himself. I find this situation ridiculous.

In making him pay for his abuse against my daughter – I have naturally filed a criminal case against him which is pending with the City Prosecutor for violation of RA 7610.

I would still like to pursue an administrative case against the said person because the school is withholding the records of my two children whom I have already transferred to another school – for obvious reasons. I also wish for this person to think twice before committing the same crime with another student.

This monster has to realize that he cannot continue to hide under the skirt of the law.

This is not the only case that is being filed against him. I have since learned that he has a pending case of rape filed against him by another student which is on-going. This means that he is only out on bail. There was another instance of sexual abuse with another student where the child’s family filed a case against the same school director but did not pursue. There are also other teachers who have left because they were not being payed their salaries and who also did not bother to complain.

This person, I am slowly finding out is very notorious and arrogant. He seems to feel he is above the law since most of his victims do not even bother to file a case against him because of the difficulties encountered, the time, effort and the expense needed in filing a case. Needless to say that he is employing scare tactics at the same time which seems to work most of the time.

What’s sad is that even with all these, he is still scot-free and is not even under the radar of DepEd due to their limited mandate.

I am determined and all I have is the time and purpose behind me to see this through.

I have since gathered some advise on how to approach the new complaint I am now drafting which is to file a complaint with Deped against the school for violation of DepEd Order NO. 40 instead of against the person.

In this regard, I would like to enjoin your comment/ advise based on your knowledge and experience on the subject matter.

Regards

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